VCFRONT a210 coolant Valve Calib

[decke003]

As promised, here is my extremely janky yet functional homemade alignment tool.

I used a marker to transfer the shape from the actuator to the pvc and just took a dremel to it… it worked WAY better than I was expecting.

 

[Peteik17]

Just a short update. Picked my car back from Tesla Sc and they replaced superbootle. When I read through the invoice it said that 5way valve actuator fault and instead of replacing just this part which cost 65$ they replaced superbootle assy. When I asked them why do you spend my money on replacing things which are not broken (I’m out of warranty) and not just replacing 5 way actuator valve they answered that they just following service instructions for the error code. So stupid that I hardly find any words. But hey, that’s how all of them big brands are doing. So just an advice for those who getting this error and the same problem be clear with SC that you want to replace 5way actuator valve and not the whole superbootle assy can save you a couple of bucks.

 

[SilverStar]

There was service bulletin for this 5 way valve back in 2018.

Details on this? How you know, link if you have it?

 

[decke003]

Details on this? How you know, link if you have it?

Here you go: https://www.tsbsearch.com/Tesla/SB-18-18-001

 

[Peteik17]

My vin was not in the list they told me.

 

[SilverStar]

Here you go: https://www.tsbsearch.com/Tesla/SB-18-18-001

That looks like it was for 2017 vehicles, and given the date was Feb ‘18, nearly all 2018 had to be assembled with the nominally corrected port available.

Do you have a Jan-Mar build? Mine in August.

 

[decke003]

That looks like it was for 2017 vehicles, and given the date was Feb ‘18, nearly all 2018 had to be assembled with the nominally corrected port available.

Do you have a Jan-Mar build? Mine in August.

That is the only TSB that I am aware of that involves the 5-way valve. I was just providing a link to the TSB that teSUCKla was referring to in his comment.

 

[SilverStar]

That is the only TSB that I am aware of that involves the 5-way valve. I was just providing a link to the TSB that teSUCKla was referring to in his comment.

Apologies, lost track of who brought it up. It seems related, but not explicitly an unaddressed service notice on the vehicles being discussed here.

It could be though that it was an engineering issue that Tesla had only partially addressed with a design/fabrication change.

Like the infamous upper control arm lube draining issue, that has lived on through several design iterations.

 

[SilverStar]

Btw dropped my 3 off at the body shop today. Intake tech seemed open to my explanation that the accident was the initiation of the problem.

Good rapport so far and he didn’t freak at my mention of Service Mode.

He’s confident in being able to work with Allstate, in general, so I don’t feel this is a lost cause to get it covered.

 

[akveluru]

As promised, here is my extremely janky yet functional homemade alignment tool.

I used a marker to transfer the shape from the actuator to the pvc and just took a dremel to it… it worked WAY better than I was expecting.

Just picked up a replacement 5-way valve actuator and will be attempting to replace it myself based on your feedback of how to swap it out.

I'm planning on 3D printing a manual actuator to re-position the valve based on your design, so if anyone is interested in doing this swap themselves, I'll share the STEP/STL files for you guys to print your own valve tool.

 

[2018red3]

I am super interested in how this works out. I am having this issue with my car and SC only want to replace the super bottle. Pulling off and replacing the 5-way valve actuator can be done in 15 minutes, just not sure it will solve the problem. If it does and you want to sell one of your 3D printed tools, I am definitely interested. I pulled my actuator off this weekend and the date code on the part is from December 2017 even though my build date is August 2018. This could be an old actuator that was part of the TSB for 2017 model year.

 

[akveluru]

I am super interested in how this works out. I am having this issue with my car and SC only want to replace the super bottle. Pulling off and replacing the 5-way valve actuator can be done in 15 minutes, just not sure it will solve the problem. If it does and you want to sell one of your 3D printed tools, I am definitely interested. I pulled my actuator off this weekend and the date code on the part is from December 2017 even though my build date is August 2018. This could be an old actuator that was part of the TSB for 2017 model year.

Assuming just replacing the valve and running calibration fixes this issue, I’d be happy to send you a print for the cost of shipping.

 

[decke003]

My new actuator is in the car (again) and I have a service appointment on Thursday to run the calibration command. I will let you all know how it goes.

 

[huanying2299]

Hope this can help everyone concerned about this alert.

Tesla sc found this alert when I replaced my HW3 computer there. They found the 5 way valve seal deformed and replaced the superbottle ($671), then the problem was solved. I can't find any 5 way valve part for M3 on Google, so I'm assuming this is attached to the superbottle.
My M3 old HW3 computer was dead, and no response at all. Got new computer, and the technician told me the coolant valve problem might cause the overheat on the car computer and burn it.

Here is the note from the technician on the invoice:
"After car computer replacement found 5 way valve uncalibrated alert. Attempted to calibrate valve, but routine failed. Inspected coolant valve found coolant valve seal deformed and not allowing coolant valve to calibrate. Removed and replaced super bottle, reassemble vehicle, vacuumed filled cooling system and performed thermal test to verify normal operation. Road-tested vehicle to verify no alerts present at this time."

 

[decke003]

Ugghh... that would be worse case scenario for me.

I already replaced the 5 way valve actuator and I am paying them to do the calibration. If there is an issue with the superbottle, then I'll lose the $45 part cost, $95 calibration cost, and then have to spend nearly $700 to have them go in and replace the superbottle.

You are correct that the superbottle includes the actuator, but it can be bought separately. The part number from the parts catalog is: 1133873-00-C, but the actual part number on the part itself is different (see attached).

 

[decke003]

Hope this can help everyone concerned about this alert.

Tesla sc found this alert when I replaced my HW3 computer there. They found the 5 way valve seal deformed and replaced the superbottle ($671), then the problem was solved. I can't find any 5 way valve part for M3 on Google, so I'm assuming this is attached to the superbottle.
My M3 old HW3 computer was dead, and no response at all. Got new computer, and the technician told me the coolant valve problem might cause the overheat on the car computer and burn it.

Here is the note from the technician on the invoice:
"After car computer replacement found 5 way valve uncalibrated alert. Attempted to calibrate valve, but routine failed. Inspected coolant valve found coolant valve seal deformed and not allowing coolant valve to calibrate. Removed and replaced super bottle, reassemble vehicle, vacuumed filled cooling system and performed thermal test to verify normal operation. Road-tested vehicle to verify no alerts present at this time."

I am very curious as to what seal they saw deformed. This is what the bottom of the superbottle looks like where it mates to the actuator and you can barely even see the seal. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[2018red3]

I am very curious as to what seal they saw deformed. This is what the bottom of the superbottle looks like where it mates to the actuator and you can barely even see the seal. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My update after visiting the SC yesterday. After arguing with them to check the actuator first before just replacing the superbottle, they did a $277 diagnostic (whatever that is beyond reading the service screen) and came back and said the superbottle is fine, it is just the actuator. They replaced and calibrated the new actuator. They assured me they ran the thermal system test and it passed and they supercharged with no issues (car will only supercharge at slow speeds because battery is always too cold, even after it is preconditioned for 90 minutes while driving).

I get home and the same alerts are in the service menu again. Called them this morning and they said to bring it back in again, they can see the alerts too. Looking back at the alert history, the alerts never cleared, they were there all day yesterday while they worked on other parts of the car. So now I am back to square one and will probably end up having to replace the entire superbottle.

PS - there is an o-ring on the opposite side of that 5-way valve cover. It will come off if you remove those screws in your photo, but it will also dump coolant. Not sure how they knew the o-ring was bad unless they evacuated the coolant first.

 

[decke003]

Okay, so this will hopefully be my last update on this issue...

I got my car back from the Service Center error free, but not before some drama.

When I dropped scheduled my appointment, I tried to make it abundantly clear that I had already replaced the 5-way actuator and that ALL i needed them to do was to run the calibration command. I reiterated this as I dropped off the car and I even made note of it in the service chat in the app.... Later that evening, I get a notification from in the app that they have updated my quote... It had gone from $97 for a general diagnostic fee to over $400 with diagnostics (which ballooned to $190 for some reason), cost to remove and replace the actuator and the cost of the actuator itself!

I wrote in the chat "I hope you didn't just replace the actuator because its brand new!"

Well... I woke up this morning, drove to the service center and was prepared for a fight.... Much to my relief, however, I spoke with the supervisor and explained that I had already replaced the actuator. He kindly apologized and restored my quote to the previous $97 estimate. A few hours later, they had everything done, I paid my $97 invoice, and I went on my merry way without any active error messages. You can also see in the attached image that the car now also passes the Thermal System Test.

I will certainly update you all if the fault shows back up.

 

[akveluru]

Okay, so this will hopefully be my last update on this issue...

I got my car back from the Service Center error free, but not before some drama.

When I dropped scheduled my appointment, I tried to make it abundantly clear that I had already replaced the 5-way actuator and that ALL i needed them to do was to run the calibration command. I reiterated this as I dropped off the car and I even made note of it in the service chat in the app.... Later that evening, I get a notification from in the app that they have updated my quote... It had gone from $97 for a general diagnostic fee to over $400 with diagnostics (which ballooned to $190 for some reason), cost to remove and replace the actuator and the cost of the actuator itself!

I wrote in the chat "I hope you didn't just replace the actuator because its brand new!"

Well... I woke up this morning, drove to the service center and was prepared for a fight.... Much to my relief, however, I spoke with the supervisor and explained that I had already replaced the actuator. He kindly apologized and restored my quote to the previous $97 estimate. A few hours later, they had everything done, I paid my $97 invoice, and I went on my merry way without any active error messages. You can also see in the attached image that the car now also passes the Thermal System Test.

I will certainly update you all if the fault shows back up.

Amazing!

Based on your success, I also attempted to swap out the 5-way Valve Actuator and after struggling for bit, I was able to get the part swapped out.

For anyone that's planning on DIY'ing this fix, here's what I ended up using to get the actuator screws out and back in - Its a 1/4" wrench with a ratchet and a Torx T15/20 Impact driver bit. I added some electrical tap above and below the wrench when I was putting the screws back in, which made it a lot easier to put the screws in snugly.



I also performed a root cause analysis (read destructive teardown) of the old actuator since I noticed I could turn it a few degrees with a screwdriver - turns out, the glass fiber reinforced plastic gears used in the actuator connecting part seems like a somewhat reasonable design choice on Tesla's part, I'm guessing that the valve may have gotten stuck at some point during normal operation causing the gears to shear off.



When I turned the valve by hand with a similar tool to what @decke003 made, I noticed that the valve was hard to turn initially, but loosened up when I turned it back and forth. I also noticed some grease/dried out coolant on the actuator though, which could indicate a possible leak in the Superbottle's O-Ring, I'm hoping that isn't the case since I didn't notice an active leak in the loop at any point during the swap.


Once swapped, I ran through Thermal Test and failed due to calibration errors, but confirmed that the a249 Valve Bad Mode code was cleared. I also confirmed operation of the valve through ScanMyTesla as the valve position was updating properly.

Next step is for me to take it into the service center and have them calibrate the valve. Fingers crossed they don't charge me the diagnostic fee.

 

[Y Cmbust]

Cooling valves that don't work and rear drive motor failure. 2018 Long range model 3 dual motor. 71k

VCFRONT a210 coolant Valve Calib

2 months ago a tech came out to replace the rear camera harness under warranty. In service mode I saw that the coolant was low, and he topped it off with water. For 12 months I've been getting worsening rear motor noise and have had three service appointments to diagnose it. We did not have a dealership in Hawaii so the tech came to my house. I'm starting to think it has to do with the coolant valve calibration error.

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This error code populates 15 to 20 times a day everyday. I also cannot run the service mode coolant pump identification, or the test thermal performance..

The technician then came back and rode in the trunk, seats down while I drove. He told me my rear motor was fried. Car is just barely under warranty. I've asked the dealer for an appointment to replace the motor which they agreed to do, but they've been not following through with arranging to ship the car to the dealership.

Does anyone else suspect a connection between a coolant valve not operating and an electric motor overheating? Obviously I do. I also suspect that it is a pump failure not a valve failure. I believe this is why a calibration error is constantly pinging the system, and why I get a fail message when I try to test the pump function. The tech told me that he has heard of quite a few rear motors having to be replaced under warranty.

Anyone else lose a rear motor?